


Flame

by peoriapeoria



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-28
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-17 05:34:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/548160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve thinks about his life using literature.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flame

It is not lost on Steve that his life is a retelling of Frankenstein without the tragic protagonist. Like Victor's creation beauty had been formed out of death (Steve knows there were times he lived only because Bucky was too stubborn), and it had ended on the Arctic ice.

The difference was in the people. Victor had thought to steal fire, the Ultimate Fire, the very spark of life and ran when his reach exceeded not his grasp but his responsibility. The mob had hounded the new Adam--in that way even Senator Brandt had a role more positive, in that Steve had become the mirror of the peoples' love for their country. Captain America had held a lot of babies thrust at him by mothers. Dr. Erskine had learned the Serum accentuated and exacerbated the qualities of its subject; Steve realized the truth of that meeting Schmidt. Schmidt who embraced the monsterous, committed outrages and found them wanting for the lack of unworldly power.

He supposed that the chorus girls wouldn't appreciate comparison with the blind grandfather and the young reading boy. They had been so kind (and yes, more than a bit handsy) while he relearned his body and found his confidence. Those crowds has been so much more scary than any alley bully. He supposed it was much the same confusion that tripped him up with Peggy.

Peggy. His steel pearl, perhaps more perfect in memory than if he'd have made their date. He would have given a lot to make that date, but not the Eastern seaboard. He hoped she'd felt the same way, that is, more happy knowing him than sad losing what might have been. For what they had was mostly that, the promise of a future after all the death.

Colonel Phillips, for all that he variously wanted him doing something else than what Steve ended up doing, was a good man, an effective officer. 'What' predominated 'how', and the opposite made Steve's blood run colder than the ice ever had. Hydra wanted the world under its heel, like a disgarded cigarette butt, smouldering. The Colonel had kept the Commandos on Schmidt's shattered faithful. Another man might have thought those weapons better used ending the war sooner.

Steve might have thought that if he'd known the work camps were factories of death. Had Colonel Phillips known?

Steve's life is a retelling of Frankenstein. Dr. Erskine's death made him again an orphan, doubly an only child. There would be no assembly line stamping out super soldiers. The Brave New World would have to wait.


End file.
